Samantha Bailey
25 April 2016
Bioethics; Dr. Sarah Roe
Deontological Duty to “Altruistic” Blood Donation
I. Titmuss’ argument for completely voluntary blood donation In a global economy where paid donors of human blood are exploited and buyers of blood make significant profit, Richard Titmuss argues in his article “Why Give to Strangers?” that not only is altruistic blood donation morally significant, but beneficial for the good of man kind. In this article, Titmuss draws a contrast between the current blood donation processes in the United States as opposed to Britain. There is currently no synthetic replacement for human blood and “the demand for blood and blood products is increasing all over the world” (Titmuss 479). Despite the dilemma …show more content…
However, when resources are renewable and in excess, one could suggest that true altruism can be put into place. Although egoism exists and is definitely a motivating factor, humans are also capable of empathy. Additionally, every human acts with purpose since we are beings with a will of our own and choose every action we do with some level of forethought given the outcome. The consequence of the action should not disqualify the individual from choosing to do the action at all. Also, it should be considered that some acts are not particularly motivated. When an individual impulsively pulls someone off of a set of train tracks when a train is heading toward the at-risk individual at top speeds, the altruistic individual typically does not think twice about the physical, social, and emotional effects it will have on him or her in the aftermath of the event. Humans do not typically calculate the pay out in a situation such as this …show more content…
Once an individual is of a certain age and capability, given they are not a felon or handicapped in some way that would prohibit their participation in jury duty, each citizen is expected to comply with the minimal account of standing on a jury. Blood donation in a lottery system would function in a similar way where those who are of an inappropriate weight, or with a fatal, degenerative illness, those who are classified as minors, or those who have a transmittable blood disease would all be disqualified from blood donation, but would still be eligible to receive since they inherited or contracted conditions which are incurable or
25 April 2016
Bioethics; Dr. Sarah Roe
Deontological Duty to “Altruistic” Blood Donation
I. Titmuss’ argument for completely voluntary blood donation In a global economy where paid donors of human blood are exploited and buyers of blood make significant profit, Richard Titmuss argues in his article “Why Give to Strangers?” that not only is altruistic blood donation morally significant, but beneficial for the good of man kind. In this article, Titmuss draws a contrast between the current blood donation processes in the United States as opposed to Britain. There is currently no synthetic replacement for human blood and “the demand for blood and blood products is increasing all over the world” (Titmuss 479). Despite the dilemma …show more content…
However, when resources are renewable and in excess, one could suggest that true altruism can be put into place. Although egoism exists and is definitely a motivating factor, humans are also capable of empathy. Additionally, every human acts with purpose since we are beings with a will of our own and choose every action we do with some level of forethought given the outcome. The consequence of the action should not disqualify the individual from choosing to do the action at all. Also, it should be considered that some acts are not particularly motivated. When an individual impulsively pulls someone off of a set of train tracks when a train is heading toward the at-risk individual at top speeds, the altruistic individual typically does not think twice about the physical, social, and emotional effects it will have on him or her in the aftermath of the event. Humans do not typically calculate the pay out in a situation such as this …show more content…
Once an individual is of a certain age and capability, given they are not a felon or handicapped in some way that would prohibit their participation in jury duty, each citizen is expected to comply with the minimal account of standing on a jury. Blood donation in a lottery system would function in a similar way where those who are of an inappropriate weight, or with a fatal, degenerative illness, those who are classified as minors, or those who have a transmittable blood disease would all be disqualified from blood donation, but would still be eligible to receive since they inherited or contracted conditions which are incurable or